Introduction
I have already made connection to this parable a number of times the last few weeks. I believe that this is the most important parable that we get in the Matthew’s gospel. I think it is also one of the most important Christological and Incarnational passages that we get as well.
This is the text that helps us see most clearly Bonhoeffer’s words,
“The church is only church when it is there for others. As a first step it must give away all its property to those in need. The clergy must live solely on the freewill offerings of the congregations and perhaps be engaged in some secular vocation. The church must participate in the worldly tasks of life in the community—nor dominating by helping and serving. It must tell people in every calling what a life with Christ is, what it means “to be there for others.’ In particular, our church will have to confront the vices of hubris, the worship of power, envy, and illusionism as the roots of all evil. It will have to speak of moderation, authenticity, trust, faithfulness, steadfastness, patience, discipline, humility, modesty, contentment. It will have to see that it does not underestimate the significance of the human ‘example’ (which has its origin in the humanity of Jesus and is so important in Paul’s writings!); the church’s word gains weight and power not through concepts but by example.”[1]
This is the text that calls us to see God in our neighbor.
Parable or Apocalyptic Vision
I have already tipped my hand here, but there is a debate in the Biblical community as to whether this is a parable or if it is an apocalyptic vision. To put it more clearly, the apocalyptic vision camp is saying, ‘This is how the end-times are really gonna go.’
However, I fall into the parable category. This an instruction through imagery, not a description of what’s to come.
R. Alan Culpepper has a beautiful write-up of why this parable is so important.
“No other Gospel has the parable of the sheep and the goats. Except perhaps for the Golden Rule, no other teaching has had such a salutary effect. The parable has influenced literature (Tolstoy), philosophy (Kant), liberation theology (Gutiérrez), and religious pluralism (Takizawa). It is also arguably the most revolutionary text in Matthew, and its social ethic is one of the most visionary in human history. Atheists can embrace its idea, yet even the most devout can never feel free from its challenge. Reading the Gospel of Matthew as a Jewish writing, however, leads to a nontraditional interpretation of this parable. Jesus has those who show mercy blessed (5:7). He has fed the hungry and healed the sick, and he has eaten with the outcast. Prophetically, he has adopted Hosea 6:6 as the key to his interpretation of the law: God desires mercy rather than sacrifice. In this last of the parables in Matthew, Jesus makes showing mercy, acts of loving-kindness, the single criterion by which the nation of the world will be judged.”[2]
The Tension of Christ the King
If you are celebrating Christ the King Sunday, it is important to address this text in light of that theme. Because the tension is not lost on this Christ the King Sunday.
On a day when we sing Crown him with many crowns! All Hail the powerful name! We proclaim wildly, loudly, that Christ, our messiah, is the King of Kings. The Lord of Lords! And isn’t that what we should expect from the Gospel of Matthew?
This is the Gospel when Jesus is visited by the Wise Men from the East who will pay homage to him, the rightful king and not to the terrible King Herod. This is the Gospel when King Herod horribly executes John the Baptist. Showing how another ruler should take over and display their power. This is the Gospel that we hear of kings and masters in parable after parable. Including this one. All the while, Jesus is moving towards Jerusalem, the city of power.
This is the moment we have been waiting for. The cinematic moment when he will conquer Jerusalem from the false King Herod and the overlord Emperor in Rome. Maybe the second movie will even have him going to Rome and conquering the whole empire?
That is what we expect from a Messiah, a Savior. We expect to see an Iron Man, a Captain America, Wonder Woman, who fights the powers of evil and wins the day.
But here on Christ the King Sunday, we experience this tension. Because our Gospel text has nothing to do with a king conquering Jerusalem. It has nothing to do with power, or armies, or might of any kind.
Instead, we hear about a king who is most clearly seen in the unexpected places.
Who is the king that we are looking for?
Like the crowds, do we look for the conquering king? As we approach Advent and Christmas, do we look for the baby Jesus that fills us with hope and joy? Do we think of the king riding down from the clouds to bring order to this chaotic world?
But on this day, we are reminded of who the true king really is. We are reminded of how Christ chooses to reign in our world.
Our “king” is not the warrior conqueror who dismantles Jerusalem. Our king is a king that identifies with the lowly and the oppressed, who feeds the hungry and sits with the sinners, who reaches out to outcasts and challenges those in authority.
Our king is seen in the faces of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner. As Pastor Dave Asendorf often says, “The last, the least, and the lost.”
Our king will not be seated on a throne with a crown of gold on his head, but will be raised onto the cross with a crown of thorns.
The King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
“Lord, When is it that we saw you?”
The king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me.’
This is how Christ reigns. Not in all the usual places of power – not in thrones or palaces or displays of ego and riches and force. But in the faces of these, the last, the least, and the lost.
Preaching Possibilities
Power and Might
I don’t think we can talk enough about this nation and this world’s obsession with power and might. While many of us will read this parable and hear the beauty of its meaning, most of us will never allow it to change our perspective that power and might are the only way in which we can serve the world while also seeking protection and security. Political, economic, and military power are the ways in which we seek to execute change.
And yet, Jesus, in no uncertain terms lays out a different way of being. Turning away from power and leaning into service with and for those who fall outside the systems of protection.
Last Sunday of Matthew
I can’t tell you how much joy this commentary has brought me. I believe that Matthew is such a powerful Gospel when we lean into its contextual and narrative meaning. Thank you to all those who have followed along with it this past year. And I hope that you find next year’s commentary on Mark (and John) to be helpful as well.
[1]Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison, (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2010), 503-504.
[2] R. Alan Culpepper, Matthew, 495-496.
Micah Krey 
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